


The Azure WEAPON

by verifiaman



Category: BlazBlue, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:55:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27161461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verifiaman/pseuds/verifiaman
Summary: Pruned from her own timeline as a result of one of the many bad ends, Noel Vermillion is saved before a reset could occur, altering the fate of two worlds forever.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	The Azure WEAPON

For those who wished to climb the Shinra corporate ladder, there were four rules that must be followed. and all of them were some variation of ‘Stay away from the big bosses!’  
  
Rule1: If for any reason the Head of Public Safety, Heidegger, wants to talk, you _let_ him talk. Unless you worked on the higher floors. The higher up you are, the more ironclad your contract was. Which meant that if you had a position below Floor44, you got to see the wonderful way he motivated his men back during the Wutai War. He just _loved_ motivating people who didn’t see things his way.  
  
  
Rule 2: if you are an attractive man, and if you just skim through contracts without reading them, _ **stay away**_ from the Head of Weapons Development, Scarlet. Unless you’re into hardcore S&M and CBT, then go right on ahead! 9 times outta 10 your input would be denied and belittled, and what you’d think you were doing, helping to develop Shinra’s robots and guiding Gaia into a bright new future, would be instead staying to the side and practicing for the cameras to pretend you had a hand in whatever she came up with. 98% of the time The woman was smarter than you, and she knew it. You know you could stomach what goes on in there if you come near one of her boy toys, and can ignore the loud buzzing noises coming from their bodies. or their mouths.  
  
  
Rule 3: Entertain Palmer. If he considers you worthy enough of his attention, then you have enough knowledge to realize what a money sink the moron’s division, Space Development, is. Just listen to him talk, nod and smile, and you’d walk out not only with your job intact, but with a lot more money than you’d get in a year! The man had no idea how money worked.  
  
And lastly, and this was important, Rule 4,: Avoid Dr. Hojo. Do not make eye contact with Dr.Hojo. Do not _talk_ to Dr.Hojo. Just stay away from him. The mad doctor's depravity and lack of morality became more and more apparent the more you go up the Shinra corporate ladder. At first, you might -rightfully- assume that the man was an antisocial weirdo, and leave it at that....buuuut then, if you had the misfortune of working at Floor 55, you realize that ‘not liking people’ was a vast, vast understatement.  
  
Floor 55 was The Floor of No Return, where those sent there got to perform the 'joyous' duty of working with the good doctor. duties included having to dispose of his experiments, make them unrecognizable to anyone who would be in the sewers for whatever reason, and the cleanup; that was often the worst part. Oh, the things you’d see there would give you nightmares for weeks! Morality was shot at the front door, and sanity along with it.  
  
Legend has it that many of the Monsters Right groups that you see pop up now and again were created thanks to help from the lucky bastards who escaped the horrors of working on this floor, and given that many of these groups often decried the torture of _King Behemoths,_ that alone should fill you with fear of the day to day life of working under Hojo if they were feeling sympathy for those monsters. Now granted, it had some pretty damn good benefits, for morale’s sake at least. Out of all the departments, those who worked in Experiment Disposal&Acquirement were automatically gifted with tax-free healthcare for any potential physical or mental ailment they ~~could have~~ will acquire, even if it happened on the far end of the planet on your day off! They were paid more than the workers on the higher floors, far more than the department heads! And for anyone who interacted with those psychos, those who decided to stay either because of the money, had nowhere else to go, or because their IDGAF levels were at critical, for more than a minute, showed why keeping these people happy was on Shinra’s top priority. And depending on how close you were to the mad doctor's experiments, like say, getting breeding partners for his monsters, your standard of living was on par with a Sector 0 citizen! Now. all of those benefits sound amazing right? it sure did to a lot of the doctor’s employees back when they were bright and bushy-eyed! so they signed up, thinking it was easy street from here on in!  
  
….And then they had to dispose of the remains of five underage girls the doctor fused with random monsters to beta test some new genetic procedure, realize that the dream was a lie, and cry themselves to sleep. or kill themselves/unintentionally provide Hojo with new parts. Usually the kids that were brought into the lab were nobodies, homeless kids, kids with parents from the poorer parts of Midgar, and kids with parents from the poorer parts of Midgar who Shinra bought their kids off of. Basically they were people no one would miss, and once you were done, you either became an empty husk that does as ordered -just like the kids- an eager sadist, go to the loony bin, or jump out of the building in a fit of madness. Yes, the perks were tantalizing, but you didn't stay there long if you had an inkling of a conscience, and anyone who came out of there was to be avoided.  
  
Sadly for the members of the Shinra Drone Surveillance Division's drone department, they did something to get his attention; his _full,_ **undivided** attention. **.** They were a brand new section of the surveillance sector, made with the intent of monitoring the Shinra building and providing logistic support to the many security companies that made shop in Sector 0. It was a cushy job, paid decently, and it kept you away from the Shinra higher ups!  
  
"Good evening." But then all of that was ruined, when _he_ came in. That pasty, oily haired, oily skinned human who called himself a scientist seemed to be in a good mood as he walked into the control room, actually looking like he wanted to be here this time. He even greeted them; amazing!. A quick glance at the monitors showed that the apple of his eye, the one that got away, was being monitored at this very moment. drone footage showed her crossing the ocean back to where she landed, right near Midgar, the speed at which she was going causing the water and any fish in her path to be sent flying by the jet of energy she was using to propel herself across Gaia’s waters. "Which body of water is she crossing, might I ask?"  
  
The poor drone operator in charge held back his gulp. _You're getting paid extra to deal with him, suck it up!'_ “Midzo Ocean.” He said as calmly as possible. “We lost visual on her after she escaped our ambush at the Golden Saucer, but according to the data logs we managed to salvage from her time here, the last files she accessed from our systems were in regards to the settlements in the Midgar Area, Settlement#12 is where she’ll be headed.  
  
  
"So I was right." Hojo said greedily. “She’s finally come back after all these years.” They _always_ came back for revenge.Strange she was coming here when she had plenty of chances to do so beforehand.  
  
The Operator shuddered as he searched for the target. "Yes _sir_." Oh jeez he was giggling. "And as you requested, Experiments 44-A and 678-Alpha were sent in along with them, and we have the settlement population's full compliance. Monster activity is being suppressed with less than a 0.1% casualty rate." The fact that so many are even there was almost as terrifying as being around this freak!  
  
  
" _Excellent."_ You could taste Hojo's glee in the air. He always got this way when his experiments performed well. "Now all we have to do is wait, and if we can get her to use that other form of hers, I'll have even _more_ data to analyze!"  
  
"Yes sir…." Why couldn't Scarlet have read the surveillance reports on the robo chick? He wasn't good looking enough for that psycho bitch’s tastes -thank god- so he could do his job without being worried that she might do _something_ to him! "The SOLDIER leading the operation reported in before you came. 55% of the settlement homes have been searched **,** but aside from some low ranking Materia and some weapons imported from Kalm, we still haven't found anything she might be after."  
  
  
"Well we'll know soon enough.” Oh, he knew exactly what she was after. did none of those idiots look at the swords on her back? “If my hypothesis is correct, she'll be coming here next, whether she successfully raids the settlement or not. Whatever she wants, the monsters want as well, and soon _I_ shall have her and her prize in my laboratory!" The operator just nodded. If the chick bites it there or in Midgar, that'd be the end of that. He rarely wished death on anyone, but if it was to get the board of executives off his case, he'd shoot the nearest person he'd see!  
  
  
 **{TARGET DETECTED! TARGET DETECTED!}**  
  
  
Suddenly, The console began blaring, all the monitors tuning in to the girl of the hour.  
  
"Ah, and there she is in all her glory!" Hojo yelled with a cackle as he saw a ball of blue light speed across the ocean. "Oh think of all the _experiments_ I could perform on her!" The only thing he could do without was her choice of 'clothing', but then again she wouldn't be wearing any of that unnecessary garbage once she was on the dissection table. "Don't you _dare_ lose sight of her, do you hear me?!"  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
Meanwhile, down below in the Sector 5 slums, a young woman was jolted awake from her bed, looking up to the ceiling. "Something's coming."  
  


* * *

  
Around the midpoint of the Wutai war, Shinra's PR machine of 'The Deadly Wutai Menace!' had done its job too well. People weren't getting educated on the actual strength of the eastern nation, just as Shinra wanted, but they -specifically the upper, _influential_ class- were getting a bit too informed about the structural weakness of the megacity that most of the western continent made their home. And thus out of that paranoia, the Midgar Settlement Project was born; and then promptly abandoned before the war ended once the strength of the SOLDIERs were proven. But still, rich people were ~~screechy, whiny idiots~~ influential, and thus 12 settlements were made as a last resort to shut up the screeching crows that helped spread Shinra's influence. bad news for the crows however, as the slum rats and the rest of the lower class found out about them thanks to a leak and made them their homes, as well as anyone from the neighboring towns who were assuming they would get that 'authentic Midgar Experience.'  
  
What they got _instead_ was a half-assed fixer upper that managed to become somewhat decent in a few years. It was kinda sad really; what was meant to be a hideaway for the upper class in the potential Wutai takeover, turned into the Midgar slums 2.0 -in the eyes of the elite that is- only with proper water treatment and fertile soil. In reality this made it more like the more middle class Sectors, but in the eyes of the ones at the top, they might as well be the Slums anyway. Communications between Midgar and the other settlements were sparse due to lack of any form of radio capabilities, with the nearest available land for good communication being the Midgar Swamp -and the giant serpents there made buildings comm. tower impossible- so how Shinra even knew when Settlement#12 was in danger was a mystery. They just came in one day, soldiers, robots, and some ungodly evil looking monsters, two of them to be exact. a platoon of over 500 soldiers, 33 robots, and 3 First Class SOLDIERs, all ready to set up shop in this town. and the citizens just let them in.  
  
And why wouldn’t they? it was Shinra after all! AVALANCHE was getting pretty bold according to the newspapers,and AVALANCHE was everywhere! If Shinra was coming here of all places with an army worthy of a Wutai outpost raid, then this had to be big, this had to be something _massive!_  
  
  
Oh it was….it just wasn’t what everyone thought it’d be.  
  


* * *

  
 _\ENERGY LEVELS HITTING CRITICAL. USER IS IN DANGER OF GOING INTO AUTO-CONTROL.\_ Her red eyes narrowed in anger as she approached her destination.  
  
 **It would be so easy to annihilate them once we hit land. none of those power readings you’re detecting can survive an Overdrive powered attack!**  
  
 _‘Shut up shut up shut up!’_ She'd spent too much time in this form! A quick look at her GPS told her that she would be approaching the next destination soon enough. She got the hardest ones out of the way in Gongaga and Junon, now she had to go to the Midgar Area, and then the city itself.  
  
And once that was done, she was going to make sure a certain scientist paid for his transgressions against her. She may obey a higher power now, but she- was still the Sword of Kusanagi, the Godslayer. And once she was back to full power, Shinra would pay.  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  
 **Midgar Area, 24:55  
  
Settlement#12 Entrance A**  
  
.You could see her descent from as far as the Upper Plates of Midgar, a bright azure light shooting down like a comet miles away from the city. The next day upon seeing the news, many would take note of the three sword-like protrusions behind the silhouette of what looked like to be a young teenage boy, bringing up the possibility of what this could be. A new Shinra robot? A new Summon Materia that was just activated?  
  
Whatever the case, those that saw it would count themselves lucky to witness it in the short duration it appeared. The bright light slammed deep into the ground, stopping just a few feet short of the gate to the settlement, creating a long, two mile long trench behind it.  
  
/ _EXITING FLIGHT MODE. ATTIRE#22 SELECTED. GAIA UNIT Θ-AZURE SHUTTING DOWN./_  
  
The light began to dim as light steam poured from the hovering blades. Once it and the light faded, the source of it was revealed, and depending on your station in life you would be either really really happy, especially with what she was wearing, or offended at what she was wearing, cause _that’s_ the most outrageous thing about her.  
  
Wutai was known for finding foreign women, specifically blondes, an exotic treat for the eyes, and aside from lacking the two things that Wutai erotica liked to exaggerate on the female form, she looked like a character from their pornographic comics. Her skin was fair and flawless, her hair a sunny yellow, and her eyes a bright, life filled emerald green and crimson red. A blue balmoral bonnet with a metal plate adorned her head and kept most of her hair inside somehow, leaving only just a few strands coming out the front and the sides of her face.  
  
Around her neck was a white collar and a short red tie that stopped at her chest, and for many back where she came from who wore this as their work uniforms, the poor token attempt at making this outfit look professional was almost hilarious. The biggest oddity of her attire were her sleeves. From wrist to upper arm, the sleeves were blue, with a metal armband that held the red ribbon right above her elbows. The metal was seemingly the only thing keeping the sleeves actually on her arms, as they were detached from the main outfit;. Yellow pinstripes lined the hems of the sleeves, and the sleeves ended in black cuffs that hung over her white gloves. On the metal armbands were small chain links, as if something was supposed to be there, but was removed. On her legs, she wore black, thigh-high socks and blue, tucked-in, heeled boots with white lining, gold trimmings, a yellow cross on the anterior, and a silver metal tip on the toes for protection.  
  
And then there was the central part of her outfit, that being her dress. Her tiny, _tiny_ dress. It was a thigh-length, sleeveless blouse, with blue sides and a white and black front, with the black portion highlighting her chest, like a bra on the outside. The outfit left a lot of her skin exposed, starting from the small of her back and leaving her shoulders and upper arms unencumbered. Just looking at her, you wouldn't think someone this frail looking would wear something this revealing, but to each their own. However, once you got over the shock of what you just witnessed, your eyes would be turned to the yellow, beady eyed eel on her back, dressed in a miniature version of her current outfit. And once it stared at you, any toughts you had would turn into paralyzing fear, for even 1st class SOLDIER’s feared the power these little lizards held.  
  
"Ha...Ha…." Her breaths were heavy as she stared at the gate, her systems defaulting back to their normal settings. Numerous programs began to close, and with it the extrasensory abilities that she used to view the world. Seeing the last few programs about to shut down, she quickly closed her eyes, and waited for a small humming noise before she could open them. Once she did, she found that everything was in working order. She was her original self again, with some caveats here and there. The young blonde and one of the most terrifying monsters on Gaia looked to the gate of the Settlement, the blonde clenching her fists and wriggling her fingers around as she felt normalcy return to her being more and more. Her official NOL uniform was spic and span, the beret on her head fitted nice and tight, and she was ready and presentable. At her legs was her companion, a green skinned Tonberry staring blankly at the road ahead, perfectly still, never blinking.  
  
"That took too long." She let out a yawn as the two of them stared at the city above. "But we're here at last" She picked up her friend and petted it. "It's gonna take us three hours to get up there according to my GPS." She could just transform and fly up there but no... _god no._ Once a day was enough, and she was already regretting spending so much of her energy coming here. Just expanding her scanner's range and risking going into Auto-Control would be worth it just to finish this up because even with the power of her other form, she had a very bad feeling that this was not going to be a good night. This was the 2nd to last sword she had left to find after all.  
  
The city looked so desolate and red from above, though that was _all_ she could remember with so many processes that were running at the time. From what she saw in those tourist magazines, there should have been houses that stretched up past the hillside, a giant windmill towering over everything that provided power to the city in the place of a Mako Reactor, and the sounds of birds and the local wildlife going about their nightly activities, with the gentle lights that came on at night giving it this rustic, old-timey feel that you'd have to pay thousands of Gil to get in the MidgarArea.  
  
' _I do hope that_ **some** _of these sheep survived.''_ Whatever was directing these monsters made sure to enjoy the suffering of whatever town they went to, and while she managed to stop them from getting to Fort Condor and the other places Shinra deemed important, these tinier areas off the beaten path weren't so lucky. "Let's go Dingleberry!" Noel Vermillion took her little friend and placed it on her back before she broke into a sprint, It's little green, fingerless stubs for hands gripped tightly, so soft and so warm it was like wearing two warm compresses on her ribs, it was a welcome bit of warmth to this cold night, and it helped lighten her mood considerably.  
  
Good thing too, she felt like she was going to need some positivity after tonight.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  
'' _Oh, they actually have a road this time.'_ That was pretty rare for these settlements from what she'd seen. This place must have had more effort put into its construction.  
  
There was actual pavement and road paint, unlike in the other settlements, likely meant to make transporting construction equipment easier. Which made sense given who funded this place’s construction, though it was obvious that they weren’t funding the upkeep anymore. The cement was a cracky, uneven mess with dead weeds and plants sticking out from any opening they could find, and she had to sidestep out of the way of a few 'way too big for her sanity' anthills. A rusty fence ran alongside both sides of the road, with the faded Shinra logo on them close to falling off. Aside from her brief surprise, Nothing about this seemed out of the ordinary, just a piece of Shinra's history left to rot, all normal. So where were the corpses? There should be families huddled together, desperately trying to survive! She was glad that it wasn't the case but she could do with some hopeful idiot's corpse-  
  
"Nono **NONONO**!" Noel shivered, banishing the image from her head as she jumped six feet over an upturned piece of road, taking notice of the deep claw marks in the pavement. "Bad Noel, no bad thoughts!" As she landed, she took notice of her surroundings; no monsters or people in sight, and no animals either, though she could hear them in the distance, farther than she should be able to at the moment. ' _Oh lovely, I forgot to adjust my settings.'_ Just a second and...  
  
 _\RESETTING AUDIO CHANNELS TO 20,000HZ_ **.\**  
  
There. Noel sighed in relief as her hearing returned to the normal human settings.The second her feet touched the ground again she jumped another six feet back up, this time landing on the fence rails and going even faster, eyes darting back and forth for any potential attacks or survivors. There wasn't a hint of exhaustion on her body, not a bead of sweat nor heavy breaths. Her face was the definition of apprehensive, eyes darting left to right frantically as she continued to find nothing. ' _I haven't seen anyone yet, and that bad feeling's getting worse!''_ The monsters didn't get their hands on the Materia or her sword here, so where were they?!  
  
The rest of the run upwards was filled with silence, and it was around the two hour mark that Noel realized she wasn't going to find any survivors whatsoever. A deep, crimson red began to take over the sky, making it impossible for anyone still in the settlement to know what time of day it was. ' _I should've just flown right into the center of town!'_ But no, she had to be thorough, and being able to scan for things outside her transformed state was something she was still working on! Dingleberry began growling angrily, vibrating on her back. "We're getting close?" It tapped her back twice. "Good." That wasn't a 'i found people' growl sadly, more a 'I smell a lot of death' growl, and it made her _very_ happy to hear that, much to her disgust. "Hopefully we'll find someone alive this _SURVEILLANCE EQUIPMENT DETECTED._ "  
  
She began to slow down, hopping on the fence poles to decrease her momentum until she came to a full stop. Her emerald eyes became a dull lifeless green, then to a crimson, angry red before finally setting on an azure blue. 1s and 0s passed by her pupils at an unreadable pace, the color in her eyes fading back to their emerald green color before she returned to normal and looked to the right. _\UNABLE TO DISCERN SERIAL NUMBER OR RELEVANT INFORMATION. CURRENT DATA RECORDED TO MEMORY.\_  
  
She blinked, staring angrily at the drone in a mix of fear and offense, though which one was the more powerful emotion she couldn't tell. "I can't believe it…" But there it was, flying far outside the reach of her current form. ' _You would think they learnt their lesson after what I did to their sheep back near Rocket Town. How dare that worthless excuse for a man try this!''_ Memories of a black haired scientist with a breeding fetish pass through her mind along with a blonde who was a god with anything mechanical, that didn't deserve those bountiful gifts on her chest. Different world, same type of people, even if the latter had an undeservedly, _unjustifiably_ large chest,and didn't wear a mask.  
  
Why was she so fixated on that man with the mask? to this day, she couldn’t remember.  
  
As she came closer and closer, she began to sweat as the temperature began to rise. "I don't think I'm going to like what's coming up."  
  


* * *

  
Back in the drone operating room, the Operator was unnerved to say the least. ' _What the_ **fuck** _was that?!'_ That had to be some weird Materia or her freaky robot powers, because there was no way he was inflicted with freaking _Fear_ from something that looked like a human!  
  
"Ohohohoh my!" Hojo said, now at the back of the room and clutching his heart despite the huge grin on his face. "Now that is quite the thing to behold! A living creature using Undead magic? Oh I just want to dissect her right now!"  
  
Uh-huh. “I'm gonna check in on the operation."  
  
"Fine, whatever." Hojo heard the Operator let out a very audible gulp a couple minutes later. "...What happened?"  
  
"Oh my god."  
  
"What happened?!" Hojo angrily demanded. "Put the Settlement footage on the main screen right now!"The Operator simply switched the feed to the settlement's main street. "..." Hojo somehow got even paler.  
  
"D-doctor?" The mad doctor was scared. What did that freak have to be scared about?!  
  
"Good day." He said as he left the room, ignoring the simpleton's cries of relief. Heading up the elevator and into his private lab, he quickly accessed his lab data and read it over. The resulting scream upon seeing the results made everyone on the floor feel very frightened when/if they went to bed. A scared Hojo was a scary Hojo after all.  
  
"This...this can't…" How did he miss this? Who could have gotten into his lab to do this?! He rarely feared his employer, but the man was going to have his head once he learned of this!  
  


* * *

  
 **Midgar Area, 3:22  
  
Settlement#12 City Gate**  
  
"Yep." Noel muttered disdainfully as she slowed to a walk, jumping off the fence and onto the hot ground. "I was right."  
  
The sky had become a full, crimson red. It wasn't the type of red she saw in those old videos back during movie night at the Academy, where everything in those was all evil and ominous, this one was more like someone erased the sky in an image program and used the bucket tool to fill it in with a single color. If it wasn't for the reddish tint that permeated the air, it would be even more annoying to look at.  
  
The smell of burning monster and human flesh lingered, and the sound of crackling fire filled her ears. A giant archway, 23 feet tall with the Shinra logo engraved into it, obscured her view of what lay ahead, with deactivated sentry turrets that were either burnt up or shot through. The gate’s giant metal doors, meant to prevent unlawful entry into the settlement, were bent and melted by an unknown force, giant slash marks deep in the metal. Dingleberry would have sensed a monster with claws that big, so it must have been a Shinra robot that did this; but why?  
  
"You still don't sense anything?" Dingleberry patted her back twice, and with a hint of annoyance made that same 'I smell death' growl, causing her to smile in anticipation despite herself. Standing in front of the rusty security gate, Noel checked the archway, the dead trees around it, and the small station with the gate controls inside. ' _This is it getting irritating to say the least_.' Entropy was ~~a welcome feeling~~ not something she was against, but there had to be people who were subjected to it, and even then she couldn't- ' _This is just wrong!'_ It was amazing she was able to keep it together! At least Dingleberry kept it's composure. Ever since they reached these gates, it'd been completely still, only sniffing the air and making the cutest noises ever!' _And they said it was evil!'_ Like heck it was! Those stupid, making up stuff about Tonberries and how they loved chopping up humans!  
  
The only thing they said about the little guy that she believed was that it was good at finding things. Monsters, humans, Materia, her, you name it, it could find it, which made it a good partner for her to have to find the things her systems couldn't. How anyone could find something so _cute_ and useful to be evil was beyond her! Back on topic though. ' _So either the monsters all left-'_ Which was impossible, as the scent of cooked skin was still in the air. ' _Or something got rid of them.'_ Her eyes widened as she remembered the drone from before, and now she felt really stupid for not considering the most obvious answer.  
  
" _Shinra!_ _I was so used to beating up their weaklings, that I didn't even bother to consider they could have something **threatening**!' _This settlement was within spitting distance of Midgar, they could mobilize an entire _competent_ attack force within an hour and send it here! ' _I underestimated those fools; how humiliating!'_ With how varied their machines were for such a primitive world, she and Dingleberry would be turned into swiss cheese if the stronger robots were still deployed there, which wasn't a problem for her, but it was for her friend! She needed a vantage point to survey the area;self repair was painful enough as it is with regular injuries  
  
Sadly however there was only one good vantage point, the archway, and getting to the top was going to be _painful._ Climbing and jumping up the rocky cliffs around it would take a good hour at best with how brittle and hot the heat made the stone, and by then Shinra or whatever was causing the monsters to stay silent could get away with both the Materia and mass murder. It had also been a good three hours since she got here and saw that drone, so they easily could have set up deterrents for her in response to her presence. This archway though? It was flat and even. If she focused, climbing it would take five minutes at best. The only problem was how hot it was, and why it was so much hotter than it should be given the temperature of the area, but that was something she could worry about later. For now, she needed a good view.  
  
She took a big breath, steeling herself for what she was about to do. ' _You've done stuff like this plenty of times before! Sure it was all because you didn't know what you were doing-’_ And her creation provided _**far**_ worse avenues of torture than this- _but you have_ **EXPERIENCE** _!'_ Taking another breath and then letting it out, she jumped to the top of the security station and jumped onto the archway, clinging onto it and fighting the pain.  
  
' _Keep it together_ **KEEP IT TOGETHER!'** The next few minutes were spent in the 46th worst form of excruciating agony her body experienced, and on the list of tortures performed on her thanks to a certain green haired man's predilection for sadism, that was pretty low.  
  
Who on earth was she talking about? And why did she loathe him?  
  
Her body _hurt,_ her skin **burned,** error message after error message filled her vision,and the instinct to let loose and transform was pretty painful in of itself, but she didn't listen. She didn't scream, but while this was nothing compared to what that man did, this wasn't the body that acclimated to it, and so her mind went for a different way to cope with the pain. ' _Just think of the heat as_ **him** _!'_ And just a second after saying that in her head, the pain became something to look forward to. His red jacket, his spiky white hair, the way he stabbed her, killed her...  
  
Sensing its master's life force was fading, and she was doing that high pitched giggling again, Dingleberry aimed it's lantern downward and sent Ice1 from it to the ground below. It didn't freeze the archway over, it was _that_ hot, but it did it's intended job, cooling the metal and giving it's master a much needed reprieve, as well as producing a lot of steam behind them as she returned to normal from the lack of pain."T-thank Yo-YOu _ERROR_!" Oh it hurt to talk. By the time she got to the top, it was amazing that she was even recognizable underneath that charred flesh. Her NOL uniform survived intact, but the rest of her? Dingleberry quickly cast Cure1 on her neck, temporarily fixing up her throat and voice box. "T-thank-" *HACK* "-You…" Luckily she had a quick and easy solution to fix the rest of this damage.  
  
"I-I don't have a-GRK! A-any i-injuries I-I'm normal, I'm norm _SYSTEM ERROR_." She was fine, perfectly fine! She was just a human with abilities that let her be at the peak of the human condition, that's all, and nothing more! As she kept thinking that, her injuries soon faded away. Her hair grew back underneath her cap, and her charred skin returned to its original fair shade. In just under a second she was back to normal, as though she was never burnt at all! "M-much better!" She took a deep breath to calm herself, to rid herself of the urges, and began to stretch her arms and limbs to wipe away the soreness. She then got back up and held Dingleberry in her arms. "Much better."  
  
Now if she could apply the same temperature resistance her clothes had to her skin without transforming, she wouldn't have to keep doing this! Dingleberry shot two more shots of Ice1 down below until Noel picked it up with a smile on her face. "You've done enough. Thank you so much!" And they said that this was one of the most dangerous killers on Gaia! "You're such a good little guy, yes you are! Yes you are!" She cooed and petted it, the creature not reacting in the slightest to the fawning. "Aww, I wuv you so much!"  
  
Once she had her fill, she put it on her back and began to survey the area, only to see that the smoke and fire was too thick for her normal eyes. A wavy blanket of smoke enveloped the settlement, with only the orange lights of the fires poking through alongside the occasional destroyed building. Letting out a groan she flicked her wrists, causing two handguns to appear out from her sleeves. She quickly placed both ends of the guns against each other and laid on her stomach, pointing the barrel end of one of the guns towards the settlement. "Heimdall, give me sight beyond sight!"  
  
The guns morphed together into an amorphous white blob that extended a good foot away from her front and a foot behind her, forming into a large sniper rifle with a scope. At the back of the rifle was a large machine that produced a humming sound, two wires slithering out of the back of it and into Noel's neck.  
  
"Grrrhkkk!" Her eyes snapped shut from the intensity as she fought back her instincts. Information began flowing into her mind a mile a second as she took some time to adjust the scope to get a good view. "Ho boy, that was rough." She spent who knows how long training with Bolverk's transformation abilities to make Heimdall and another form, and it was only the second time she put it to use. This was Heimdall's second outing, and like the first one, she saw nothing but death when looking through its scope. Noel wasn't under any illusions that what she'd see would be nothing worse than total devastation, but this, this was a ~~welcome surprise~~ awful! Ignoring the heated metal she just climbed, the temperature here should have been enough to ignite a human's body in just a second! Stone would melt, and concrete would liquify once again,and every pipe would burst, spewing water everywhere, but there was none of that!  
  
In fact, the buildings looked as though they were bombed rather than melted or burnt, or anything brick and metal would experience under this heat. Seeing the destroyed Shinra drones and larger robots, she accessed her system's more extensive scanning equipment- "OW!"-Only to get a massive jolt of pain and a feedback error blocking her vision. She quickly dismissed it and went back to work. ' _I still have some kinks to work out'_ Focusing on just getting basic information, she switched to the Materia scanner, and soon she was getting dozens of guiding arrows directing her to different parts of the settlement. She followed the rightmost one to the road in the center of town, and that was when she saw surprise #2.  
  
Shinra soldiers, low ranking grunts at that going by their armor, with Heimdall's systems telling her that some of them were carrying Mastered Exit Materia, all of them dead and _not_ burnt to a crisp. Each of them were carrying Shinra Security AX-44 Rifles in the holsters on their backs, the most annoying guns that she had ever been shot with, but right now those were at the bottom of her list of worries. What was at the tippy top of that list however, were the aforementioned still recognizable and intact bodies. She double checked her settings just to be sure and yep, not a scratch on them! "URGHHH!" She winced as she cleared the static clouding her vision, the data being uploaded into her brain making her head feel foggy. ' _Keep it together Noel!'_ Rubbing the back of her head where the cables were attached, she realized that she had to-!  
  
\ _SYSTEM ERROR. OPTIC OVERLOAD. CEASE CURRENT ACTIVITIES TO PREVENT EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN OF OPTICAL FUNCTIONS.\_  
  
Quickly aiming the scope around the other parts of the city to gather as much data as possible, she immediately dismissed Heimdall and laid the tiny guns on the floor, rubbing her head in pain. "Haaa...haaa…" Oh god the static, the sweat, it was _everywhere!_ It was like the worst part of trying to train like Makoto, only it stung and stank in all the icky ways! Sensing it's master's plight, Dingleberry crawled onto her chest and dropped its lantern on her lap. Then it slapped her with the blunt end of it's knife. The air chilled slightly around Noel, cooling her down considerably, and the impact helped her jog her eyes back to their normal settings.  
  
"Thanks!" She gave it an affectionate rub on the head before her cheeks pinkened."Now could get off my chest please?" The Tonberry stared at her blankly. She sighed and placed the creature back on her back, giving it back its lantern. With just a thought, the guns were suddenly back in her sleeves, on her person where they belonged.  
  
' _I thought we talked about it invading my personal space like that, but I guess it didn't listen.'_ Suddenly Dingleberry began to pound on her back, but she wasn't paying attention. Her mind was instead focused on the burnt homes and dead men below. ' _Why does this look so familiar?'_ This fire, the sense of despair that was so overpowering, the deaths, it wasn't as destructive and horrific as the imagery in her head, and yet it gave her a twisted sense of nostalgia, along with an intense loathing for everything around her. She scrunched her eyes, clenching her teeth hard and only relaxing when those awful thoughts were gone from her head.  
  
' _This settlement's structure doesn't look that much different than the other ones.'_ And given it's close proximity to Midgar, there had to have been a back way that they used to get in here and avoid any monsters or potential enemies, didn't trust Shinra _not_ to put something like that in, and she didn't see any evidence of them coming in through the entrance . There weren’t any footprints or tire treads, not even the heavy imprints of their two or four legged robots. ' _Could they have used an underground tunnel?'_ Again, this was pretty close to Midgar, so it _was_ feasible, but she couldn't be too sure unless she went down there herself.  
  
As she climbed back down, she still didn't react to her friend's frantic back patting or its 'There's an enemy in front of us!' growls. It's blank face looked upward at the yellow one-eyed dinner staring down at them. How interesting that an Ahriman was here, and a very healthy looking one too! It's stubby legs would taste good fried with the right oils, and the eyeball's juices would make a great glaze if it baked the creature's body. Fried wings, baked body, and eyeball glaze. As long as the master didn't know where it came from, she would have an excellent feast tonight!  
  
Now that metal thing that had been following them though, it wasn't so sure. It'd probably taste as bad as the master's cooking.


End file.
